My experience was that their green teas did not seem that fresh. Their Souchong black tea was excellent though. I also enjoyed some of the dark oolongs. Overall, a little underwhelmed by what I received although I am not really an expert to be able to judge.

I bought a lot of teas from them since I was swayed by the elaborate website with it's own forum, the glorification of it's founder and all of his articles that made me feel informed, etc. When I got the tea this all seemed like hype since overall the tea seemed more mediocre than great compared with other (cheaper) teas I have bought (at least with the green and white teas which are mainly what I drink.)

I talked to them about the freshness issue and was told that in China, aged teas are more valuable than fresh teas... even green and white teas! I have not heard this before anywhere else. They would not accept a return.

It is my understanding that certain Oolongs and Pu-Erh are sought after aged, however green and white tea are usually best fresh? I've always been advised not to stock up on them because they lose their quality if not used within a few months/year?

Yes that is my understanding also and the fresher green teas I bought elsewhere are much better! When they told me that I definitely became suspicious, since they were referring specifically to silver needle white tea!

I have changed my mind about Tea Hong. I trust their teas. In fact I decided to give away many of my teas since I had too many, and the Tea Hong teas are amongst the ones I kept. Not sure if their greens are as fresh as some other vendors and my favorite Lung Ching is not their brand, but I still like their teas very much!

Hmm, i've been thinking about ordering from them since quite some time - unfortunately I still got so much tea here

I really love Leo's site (tea guardian) thats been crafted with a lot of effort. Only strange thing is that his views on Pu-Erh are a bit excentric (he seems to be against compressed teas altogether). But I always considered him more the green- black and especially oolong person - theres so much lovely descriptions about Oolongs on his homepage, and i'm sure he's got amazing stuff. He seems to be a genuine enthusiast and chajin who really wants to spread knowledge, and he's the one who got me interested in the great world of Dan Congs.

I did wonder though whether the site is a bit deserted - most of their Yixing teaware under 200$ is out of stock.. but still on the site.

I haven't purchased from him yet as I also have a sizable stash to sip through, but I've corresponded with him a little and can say that he's an extremely warm and interesting person with a great deal of tea experience. I think (not certain) that he has been involved in large tea companies and that Tea Hong is more his personal labor of love. My sense is that he'd be very responsive to email exchanges and would steer you to the right teas, but of course I can't speak with certainty on that. I'll report back when I do place an order there and am most interested in hearing of anyone else's experience.

TeaHong was my only tea source for a while. This is because I was a fan of the site and enjoyed many of the articles, while also being a regular on the forums. Heck, I even have Leo's Facebook. The tea's I've gotten from them have been great, though I haven't ordered from there in almost a year. This is mostly a money issue, because getting the shipment from Hong Kong starts shipping at about 18USD. Finances right now don't support that, but hopefully they will soon.

There are a number of teas on there that I really like, and for a little while I was doing reviews of each one I'd tried. Unfortunately I haven't kept up with that. They've also got a few tea styles that I haven't seen elsewhere (maybe due to alternative naming?) - their "Shinhulin Dabai" Fujianese black tea, and their "Wild tree yunwu" for example. If someone happens to know other sources...

Leo's been involved in a number of tea ventures. The "Ming Cha" brand was something he was closely involved with before leaving the company for personal reasons, and he seems to do a lot of non-retail tea merchant work. He's usually rather busy.

As for Yixing, he's quite picky. He has experience with some real lemons, and seems to have an eye for fakes. They'd added the Yixingware I think last spring (site's not very old) and it went pretty quick.

asterix2k10 wrote:The loose pu-urh I got from them (Imperial Tips?) is better than the 2 or 3 cakes I have here.

I got my first order from them a couple of days ago and I can just confirm what you said - very good quality altogether and really comparatively modest pricing.I also got their Pus and the'yre a bit different but really very good.

I've never gotten a bad tea from teahong. They're my main source for Oolong's... Their dancongs are absolutely fantastic if you enjoy them on the lighter roast side. Their huangzhi Xiang and Lan Hua Xiang are my favorite. And I'm drinking a pre release green right now they sent me a sample of, very fresh, very good. The puers are also very good for the money. Their sheng are loose, so they're more mature than a cake would be at the same age. And honestly I hesitate to talk them up on here too much because their inventory is usually pretty limited with their teas coming from smaller farms, but whatever, new dancongs and yan cha harvests should arrive in a few months and I've got quite the stock pile as is

Also, Siu, the main customer service rep and one of Leo's apprentice's, is very helpful and always willing to give details on any of their products